France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History

The Dreyfus affair — the infamous account of Jewish army officer and French citizen, Alfred Dreyfus, unjustly convicted of treason in 1894 — was the most significant political and social crisis of fin-de-siècle Europe. In the first book designed to introduce students to the broad outlines and significant legacies of the affair, the author deftly interweaves text with documents, tracing the course of events. He highlights the many issues connected with the case, including anti-Semitism, militant nationalism, socialism, the birth of modern Zionism, and the separation of church and state. Sixty-six documents are embedded in the narrative, offering students a broad range of sources to examine, including newspaper editorials, letters, trial testimony, and diary entries. A list of the principal characters is included in the appendices.

The Dreyfus affair — the infamous account of Jewish army officer and French citizen, Alfred Dreyfus, unjustly convicted of treason in 1894 — was the most significant political and social crisis of fin-de-siècle Europe. In the first book designed to introduce students to the broad outlines and significant legacies of the affair, the author deftly interweaves text with documents, tracing the course of events. He highlights the many issues connected with the case, including anti-Semitism, militant nationalism, socialism, the birth of modern Zionism, and the separation of church and state. Sixty-six documents are embedded in the narrative, offering students a broad range of sources to examine, including newspaper editorials, letters, trial testimony, and diary entries. A list of the principal characters is included in the appendices.

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Introduces students to the most significant political and social crises of late 19th-century Europe--the unjust 1894 conviction of Jewish army officer and French citizen Alfred Dreyfus for treason. Interweaves explanatory and interpretive text with documents to highlight such issues as anti-Semitism, militant nationalism, socialism, the birth of modern Zionism, the separation of the church and state, and the emergence of intellectuals into the political arena. Includes a chronology. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Michael Burns (Ph.D., Yale University) is professor of modern European history at Mount Holyoke College and has taught at Yale University and the École des Hautes Études. His publications on the Dreyfus affair include Rural Society and French Politics: Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair (1984) and Dreyfus: A Family Affair, from the French Revolution to the Holocaust (1992), which was awarded the Prix Bernard Lecache of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism. Burns serves as advisory editor for the Blackwell series New Perspectives on the Past.